Party House "Ban" another PR stunt

I’m guessing that most of us have read about this supposed “ban” from Chesky. In a nutshell, the blame for these “Party House rentals” are laid at the foot of the Hosts. IMO, the “rules” dictated to hosts from Air encourages bad guest behavior and sets the stage for tragedies such as this. The host bashing has to stop, the blame lays squarely on Air itself and Chesky is desperate to deflect and again, take no responsibility. If you disagree with this and feel Air has your back, I’m happy for you, but I would appreciate if this thread isn’t turned into an argument over this difference of opinion. But for those that feel Air promises trust and safety, pushes hosts to accept guests that should not be allowed to book, while giving all risks to the hosts, I hope you can take a few minutes to join the growing pushback from hosts.

The following post has gotten media attention and is all over social media. The gentleman that wrote it has been contacted by a reporter interested in interviewing hosts. These interviews will take place later today and if you are interested in being heard, please contact him via FB asap. He can be found here or here zafarmawani@icloud.com

Zafar Mawani
I have shared my response to Brian Chesky’s tweet yesterday regarding the events in Orinda on several Facebook Airbnb host pages. It appears the post may have struck a chord with a few hosts. Some hosts have asked how they could lend support to the response to Chesky’s statement.

In response to the tragedy in Orinda, CA Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said Airbnb will “redouble our efforts to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct, including conduct that leads to the terrible events we saw in Orinda”.

Mr. Chesky further said “I have directed Margaret Richardson from our Executive Team to oversee this new team and initiate a 10 day sprint to review and accelerate the development and implementation of these new safety initiatives.” While Margaret Richardson begins her 10 day safety sprint, I submit to her and her team that holding hosts and guests accountable should start with holding Airbnb itself accountable for this tragedy.

How could Airbnb have been more responsible and possibly prevented this tragedy? Let me count the ways!

  1. Ensuring more rigorous ID Verification;
  2. Not allowing guests to delete their profiles and start new ones using the same ID credentials;
  3. Ending the practice of letting unfair guest reviews stand without an editorial decision by Airbnb on fairness or accuracy. /Exercising broader discretion to remove guest reviews which are posted against a reputable host;
  4. Not allowing guests unsubstantiated allegations (such as cameras inside a home) automatically suspend the listing pending investigation;
  5. Ending the policy of refunding guests unused nights when a guest has been kicked out for rules violations;
  6. Ending the policy of becoming the final arbiter on guest refund if the guest is unhappy, leaving the issue of refund entirely up to the host (like BDC or homeaway);
  7. Paying out damage claims based on credibility of the parties (a host with 600 reviews of 4.9 should be more credible than a guest with no prior reviews);
  1. Allowing hosts to see how many refund claims the guest has asked for in the past or how many damage claims have been filed against the guest by other hosts;
  2. Allowing hosts to see the reviews the guest has left for previous hosts;
  3. Scanning social media for posts about parties —or how to scam a host —and canceling the reservation right away which it pertains to. (Software is very good now to get this dome)

If Airbnb wants hosts to behave responsibly it must give hosts the right screening tools (the ones which hosts have been demanding for years).

If Airbnb sincerely wishes hosts to behave responsibly, it cannot implement policies which scare hosts from enforcing house rules.

This is not new information. Hosts have been alerting Airbnb for years about the link between Airbnb policies and dangerous, irresponsible and reckless behavior by guests.

Airbnb chose to take no notice.

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I think you can assume the lack of responses is due to this already getting discussed in other threads.

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EDIT: My listing says “no parties” and “no guests” in multiple areas. A recent guest thought “wow, she seems so strict, but the house is pretty, so let’s try it EDIT because it will be quiet.” We had a fabulous conversation about that!

I’d cheerfully speak out that Air is capricious when it comes to host safety.

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What does that mean? What/where is the growing pushback? Just messaging this guy is it? I looked on facebook and I see a corporate investor host with broken internet links so I’d like something more substantial.

Air provides the instrument where anyone with ID and a credit card can rent a mansion for a very limited time. There is no way that anyone can say with accuracy whether it’s for a party, family reunion, movie set, or couple fantasy until the event is actually on. So how exactly is Air going to prevent this?

Probably more dumbass rhetoric.

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One thing I don’t see on the list in the OP is “real deposits.” I’ve rented mansions with just a credit card and ID and one had a $1000 deposit charged in advance and it took 2 weeks to get it back. That was a VRBO rental. The other was an Airbnb with no real deposit. However they did have cameras and hostx that live next door.

Yes, I saw the threads, hence my opening line. The goal of the post was to give others the opportunity to speak with an interested reporter, if they so choose.

Hopefully you were able to contact him/her?

If you look on Airbnb social media, FB, etc, it ain’t pretty. Air is getting called out by both guests and hosts. The offer was to speak with an interested reporter, nothing more. There will never be change without baby steps to get the momentum going.

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Agreed @justMandi, the “ban” is just PR BS and it can not be regulated with the current company set-up.

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@KKC, yep, that would be another one to add to the list

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Okay, I misunderstood your post. Thanks.

Chesky just wants to go public and make his billions, and really doesn’t want Air’s stock to behave like Uber’s, or get the IPO halted like WeWork.

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I saw Zafar’s post on facebook yesterday, now I can’t find it. Airbnb removed it?

It’s still there – I found it by searching his name and Airbnb and “Orinda”.

Okay, I can find it that way but when I go to the facebook page I can’t find it.

I think you misunderstood me. They rented because I don’t have parties, they just thought I sounded strict. I live here, so contacting anyone is easy. :slight_smile: I did have one local try to rent for a 21st b’day pool party. That was a no.

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Same, I could never find it that way.

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While I was looking for his post on the Air page, I found this one

Say No to VRBO Service Fee (https://www.facebook.com/SayNotoVRBO/?
This is not how I was planning to start our OTA CEO Scrabble with C for Chesky … But unless you‘ve been in hibernation, you know that this story is blowing up every single short term rental Facebook group online.

When Brian Chesky said Airbnb would ban party houses, hosts everywhere were outraged. For the enabler of this phenomenon to say they are now banning the so-called party houses is too ironic for words.

Let’s dissect this. As a guest, you can set up an Airbnb account that may or may not have your real name and real photo, a photo ID may or may not be verified, and you can pay with gift cards. The site supposedly does not allow third party bookings, but anyone who hosts on Airbnb will tell you that is simply FALSE.

And furthermore, Chesky calls out abusive hosts and guests. The irony … the anonymity the site allows via the middle man who hides identifying information on guests, the same middleman who does not verify owners are licensed or paying taxes. It’s almost funny that this middleman, Airbnb, wants to stop abusive host & guest behavior which is enabled by their business model. This same business model that turned Expedia owned HomeAway green with envy. They started following Airbnb down the rabbit hole hoping to cash in on the same model.

It is appropriate to start our series of posts with Airbnb since VRBO’s Service Fee was a direct result of their commitment to copy this business model to monetize transactions at rates closer to 20% versus the approximately 3% (average subscription cost as a percentage of average rental income) prior to the Expedia purchase.

There’s Airbnb and now there’s Airbnb 2.0 aka the new Vrbo

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I imagine this will probably be quite the topic of discussion at the Homeaway Partner Summit in Scottsdale this weekend.